The timeframes for Floriana’s garden city project are to be announced in the coming weeks, following a ground-penetrating radar investigation that is being carried out along the whole stretch of St Anne Street.

The proposal has lately been expanded to include the pedestrianisation of part of Glormu Cassar Avenue running all the way up to Castille in Valletta.

Preparations for the mega pedestrianisation project have been going on for months, Greenserv, the new government agency responsible for urban greening projects, has confirmed.

The Floriana project, which was first conceived by DHI Periti in 2014, was promised by the Labour Party at the start of the election campaign last week, but scepticism swirled about how doable it is and whether it was just election talk.

Another existing impression of the project by Alberto Favaro.

It is part of a Labour pledge to convert five large urban spaces into parks and gardens, in some cases redirecting traffic to underground tunnels and knocking down existing buildings in the heart of some of the busiest towns.

Works to date on the Floriana project include on-site geotechnical investigations, a detailed survey, a feasibility study and preliminary designs and renderings, Greenserv CEO Richard Bilocca told Times of Malta.

“In the coming days, these preparatory works will be complemented by a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigation along the whole stretch that will allow our team of architects and engineers to proceed into the next steps,” he said.

Bilocca said GreenServ was expecting an outline development application to be submitted shortly “to pave the way for this very important greening infrastructural project”.

The government has engaged Ian Camilleri Cassar, from DHI Periti, as the lead architect behind the project.

He said it would take another two years just to conclude the studies on how to carry out the “massive” conversion.

A content Camilleri Cassar said he is “confident it will happen” and the will to make it happen is there.

The project involves the removal of vehicular traffic from the town’s avenue – the main artery in and out of Valletta – through an underground tunnel that would free the surface for landscaping to create a recreational area.

I have never felt so strongly that it has to be done- lead architect Ian Camilleri Cassar

“It is a massive project that will entail lots of logistical problems, and you cannot just start digging and then face the hurdles. They need to be reasoned out before.

“We are talking about a major hub and about affecting traffic flows in and out of the capital city while it is underway,” he said.

A pedestrian path to Castille

Camilleri Cassar, the project leader to direct the government’s architects, said he had “never felt so strongly this level of energy that it has to be done”.

Several meetings had already taken place to see how to develop Floriana’s regeneration, he added.

The project is coming along “even better than we had originally proposed”, Camilleri said.

It now includes a direct pedestrian path all the way to Valletta, without having to cross the road once or encounter a single car, and avoiding the original dead end at the War Memorial.

The proposal is for Glormu Cassar Avenue, leading to Castille, to become one lane, with cars only driving up and the parking spaces on the side removed to create a wide promenade all the way into Valletta.

“It will be a beautiful, paved road, as opposed to the tarmac and parked cars we are used to seeing,” Camilleri Cassar said, adding it would highlight the stunning surroundings of Grand Harbour and the Three Cities.

“This link has made the project,” he said.

The underpass will start at the Lion Fountain in Floriana for cars to emerge at the War Memorial, changing the traffic flow only minimally.

He said it would change the whole entry into the capital city, even for cruise-liner passengers, “who have a horrendous walk today”.

Last September, Camilleri Cassar had expressed frustration that the project, which had gone down well with the public, was gathering dust, as the Environment Ministry did not give updates on studies it had commissioned into its viability the January before.

But the architects continued to push and Budget 2022 then announced feasibility studies, but no further details were given about the project. It had been on the drawing board for eight years.

He described it as “extremely challenging” as it hits all entities directly. Asked about funding, he said discussions were still underway.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has said a Labour government will invest €700 million to create “a series of open, public spaces in every city and town” and that the plan would start to be implemented from the day after the election.